05-29-24 Interview - Dude Dad

DUDE DAD JOINS US TODAY And if you are on the internet at all you've probably seen Taylor Calmus, who is simply Dude Dad online.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm joined by a man who isfamous on the Internet and probably somewhat famous
in real life as well. Youmay know him from his work as Dude
Dad on YouTube or other social mediaoutlets, but his real name is Taylor
Kalmus. And now I feel like, now I feel like I know something
special, even though it's on theInternet, so really a lot of people,
but I feel special knowing that doDad, who is joining me now

(00:21):
has a real name. Welcome tothe show. Should I call you Taylor
or should I call you Dude Taylor? Fantastic? Thank you? I want
to ask Taylor, you have createdthis wonderful channel that is family friendly.
I can play anything from your channelon my radio show and not have to

(00:41):
worry about the FCC coming down onme, And yet you are so wildly
popular. Was all that by design? Did you just decide I'm going to
make clean comedy and go from there? What happened? Tell me the backstory?
Yeah? Kind of. I meanI've been, you know, making
videos and stuff most of my life. I got my first camcorder when I

(01:02):
was like, I think ten,But really it all kind of took off
and found a direction when my wifegot pregnant, and I decided to make
content about fatherhood, and I didn'treally know what that looked like, but
I just kind of started making it, and really the audience told me what
direction to go based on how thingswere received and stuff, and then I

(01:25):
just kept doing more of that.But yeah, we've always like my wife
has always been really good at likekeeping me on track and you know what's
okay, what's not okay, whento push the envelope, when not to.
But I mean, and sometimes weget a little bit edgy, but
for the most part, like almostall of our content, even if it

(01:45):
is edgy, will be positive,right, Like, we never go negative
because there's enough of that stuff outthere already that we just want to be
a happy place, happy little cornerof the internet. Well, we have
a lot of people on my textline that have similar things to this.
Please tell dad dude that our favoritesegment of his is Tom Brady in Retirement.
For months now, my wife saysTom Brady whenever she wants me to

(02:08):
do something, in the same toneand voice of his Giselle character in the
segment. So funny, And Ibring that up because what is it like
to have that kind of positive impacton people. Now you've become a part
of that couple's dialogue, do youknow what I mean? That's kind of
powerful. Yeah, I love it. But honestly, like in a way,

(02:28):
they're part of our dialogue because likewhen we make content, we're just
trying to hold up a mirror andshow you yourself, you know. So
a lot of the times that meanslike using our own lives as a vehicle
to find what that content is andbe open and vulnerable to share our experiences.
Well, really what we're looking foris like something that like we do

(02:49):
in our relationship, or that Ido as a dad, or that our
kids do, and that we recognizethat other people are probably going through as
well, and just try to like, you know, I'll make content about
that and kind of turn it aroundand make something that's just really relatable for
other people. And then you movedto Colorado and you started making content about

(03:10):
being a transplant that is so perfectbecause it's absurd, but it's also incredibly
accurate. At the same time,I feel like this is an incredibly target
rich environment, oh one hundred percent. And like the the vidion we haven't
made yet because I'm too nervous to, but I definitely know we need to

(03:32):
is the Colorado Natives belife? Becauseare you native? I gotta know?
Are you native? No? I'ma transplant as well, which is why
I currently Okay, okay, bothpodcasts they are intense. Yeah, okay,
yeah, Now, I mean they'realso intense when they go camping,
but they're just all around in intenselike with their opinions and the only thing

(03:55):
that they agree on is that theor right. Well, I will tell
you my recent Yeah, this ismy natives versus transplants experience from the past
week and a half, two weeks. Right, So, I've been on
a little bit of a tear aboutzipper merging, okay, because zipper merging
is a necessary thing and we allneed to learn how to do it.
So I've been on a tear aboutthis for a little while, and I

(04:16):
should. I should print out theemails and the text messages that say I'm
a Colorado Native. We don't dothat here because that's rude, and then
right next to it as a textmessage says I'm a Colorado Native. We've
always done it that way here.So there's no like rotten or reason to
what the Natives. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.
Now, when did you go frombeing a guy on the internet to doing

(04:40):
live shows? When did that happen? Last year? I've done I dabbled
in stand up comedy years ago,but I never, like never, it
didn't feel like the right time forme or whatever. But then, you
know, I've got a few friendsthat kind of made that transition, and
I was interested in doing it becausewhen you just make content and put it

(05:02):
online every day, you kind ofmiss some of that interaction with your audience
that you get from a live showand getting to travel and seeing you know,
how far content is reached and howit's impacted people and get to like
meet them in person, and alsolike you know, tell a joke and
get the instant reaction of that joke. Is there's nothing, there's no rush

(05:27):
greater than that. But also it'sa bucket list thing, right, you
know, like not anybody, especiallynowadays the way the Internet has grown with
short form content. Literally everyone intheir mom is making content, right,
So doing live shows is just anotherway to like kind of stay ahead of
the curves, you know, andyou've got a build an audience you're so

(05:50):
much you can do. Also,it's just so much fun. But you,
because of your success on the Internet, I'm assuming that you've got that
built an audience. You already knowwhat to expect to a certain extent.
They know who you are. You'renot trying to like introduce yourself when you
go and do these shows. Isthere anything different in the live show in
the tone or tenor than is onyour content on a daily basis? What

(06:11):
can people expect? It is aneighteen and plus show, so it's we
take it a little bit further thanwe do in the videos, but it's
still it's just very much geared towardsmarriage and relationships and fatherhood, but it
is content. It's for the parents, not for the kids. So that

(06:34):
would be the one thing that wouldtell people, just to make sure they
know that. But other than that, the same type of humor for sure.
Well, you've got three shows comingup here. You've got one in
the Springs, You've got one inGreeley, and then one in I have
this in front of me and thenI closed the window like in Denver.
Yes, they're coming up at thebeginning of June. I put a link

(06:55):
on my blog today where people canactually buy tickets straight from there, and
I know that the one in Denver'salmost sold out. So if you want
to go see him in Denver,you want to go pick up those tickets
now. But you know, Iwould to know have you gotten any kind
of pushback from And I'm gonna putair quotes around this, real comedians,
the guys and gals who have beenworking slogging it out at the comedy store,
you know what I mean, Likethe people that have been coming up

(07:17):
a more traditional way and here youcome in and you're selling out shows all
over the place because you're the guyfrom the Internet. Have you gotten any
pushback from from those folks? No? Not really. I mean most people
understand, Like I mean, there'sthere's probably like some people that are,
uh that have feelings about it,but the reality is and like like,

(07:38):
uh, the guy that opens forme, his name's David Rodriguez, brilliant
comedian. He's you know, tookthat traditional path and now he owns the
comedy for here in Fort Collins hasbecome a really good friend. And you
know, because I've had that conversationwith him and he's like, dude,
He's like you've put the work in. Your work was just different than ours,
you know. But like at theend of the day, you get

(08:00):
you've been doing the work for yearsand years and you can sell the tickets
now. You know, you didn'tfast track anything. I've been You've been
doing this for eight years. Youknow. It is just a different path
than what other people have taken.But yes, I don't know, but
I do. You know. Itis kind of feel like I'm operating outside
of the normal comedian scene in away that we have our own little,

(08:24):
you know, bubble that we've createdand can bring people into to do these
shows. And we've had, imean, just a lot of fun with
it, and crowds have loved it, and yeah, so we're happy to
be able to do it. Ilove that the Internet has sort of democratized
entertainment, Like you don't have tohave an agent, you don't have to
be hired from somebody else. Youcan just do what you did and start

(08:45):
putting out great content. I know, I say that flippantly, like,
just put out great content. Itwill be fad. It's a lot harder
than it looks. I don't wantto devalue your skill and your creativity when
I say it that way. Butthe access is fantastic. I mean,
you've built a thing here, You'vebuilt a huge following and a huge success,
and I'm assuming this is how youmake your living fully now because I

(09:05):
know it was a side hustle whenyou started. Exactly. Yeah, I
mean it's it's really cool to havedirect access to an audience and be able
to build an audience on your ownbased off of who you are and what
you're about, what you want todo. And you know, you don't
have to go through that traditional Hollywoodsystem where you have to get cast in

(09:26):
something and then presented a certain way, or you've got agents trying to you
know, gear you towards this orwhatever. You can just do your own
thing. But yeah, it's beena it's been a wild ride for sure,
and uh yeah, I wouldn't wouldn'ttrade it for the world. Well,
a couple of pop and well,now you've got the natives restless on

(09:46):
my text line. Okay, Ijust want you to know this. They're
like, hey, we as Istarted saying that, I'm like, oh,
I'm gonna get myself in trouble.Wait, I just want to say
I'm super happy and grateful to behere and thank you for having me.
Well, this one says us Nativescan take a joke, tell him to
create him, so he's ready.But then this native said, hey,

(10:07):
Mandy, okay, good good.The only thing all natives can agree upon
is there are too many transplants.So there you go. That's that.
But there you go. Somebody elseasked this question. I said, Hey,
do dad is great. We sawhim with Charlie Barns a couple of
years ago. Can you ask himhow he met Charlie. I'm a Midwestern
transplant and Charlie hits all the rightstuff about Wisconsin. If there is a

(10:28):
little bit of crossover in the familycleaner friendly YouTube world with a holderness family
and Charlie and how did all that? Do you guys have secret meetings that
we should know about? Kind of? I mean really, it's just like
a support system, like we allkind of started coming up at the same
time and kind of entering into thisviral video like I don't know world at

(10:54):
the same time and took notice ofeach other just reached out. At the
time, Charlie and I were bothin Los Angeles, so we met up
and shot a couple of collabs andand then saying with Penn, you know,
and and it's been a really coolthing though, because all of us
went from being like broke, strugglingartists just trying to figure out what our

(11:20):
thing in life was. Literally,I was like eight years into Los Angeles
and pursuing acting and being like,oh crap, it's been eight years and
I haven't exactly broke through yet.What if I have to move home?
Yeah, Like, what do Ido? I guess I'm the work construction.
I don't know. That was myfallback plan. And then you know,

(11:43):
and then started the page and itstarted to take off, and all
of a sudden, you go fromnot knowing what you're gonna do to being
like, oh, this is whatit rested myself like, not only is
this the rest of my life,this is a dream come true. And
now I get to, you know, bring my life into it and my
best friends and we can all doit together. So Charlie and Penn and

(12:07):
a few others that I've met alongthe way all kind of have similar stories
and to be able to like connectwith them about stuff like hey, how
you uh, how do you hirepeople? Like what do you what do
you do? Like, how doyou manage this? You know, what
do you do when someone comes upto you at the trampoline part and wants

(12:28):
to talk? But your kids ranin separate directions and you can't find them,
and you don't want to be rude, right, but you also need
to find your tiny children that mightbe drowning in a ballpit. Well,
I've got the following text messages veryvery quickly. Taylor's target dads and parking
lots is awesome. Tell him thankyou. This one. I like how

(12:50):
he makes fun of what his peoplehave done to Colorado. And this one
please ask Taylor if he will dobackyard playground designs for families again. So,
you obviously have touched a lot ofpeople in this audience and in Colorado.
Does your stuff work as well outsideof the state? And how does
that play out when you're talking toObviously we don't nobody else might get why

(13:13):
the chaffstick bit is so funny,but we live. That's our lived experience
for sure. I mean, youknow, like the chaffstick bit is really
just an arid climate bit, Sothat'll transcend past Colorado. But most of
what our content is is more familyoriented, and they's just a small percentage
that Colorado oriented. Theat the backgroundplayhouse builds that the one listener talked about

(13:39):
that's about our TV show. Wehad a TV show on the Magnolian Network
called super Dad where I'd help otherdads build cool backyard projects through our kids.
We ran two seasons of that andextremely proud of that TV show and
what it is, but also realityand television is a lot of no joke

(14:00):
in that. Yeah, So Idon't know if it'll ever come back.
I love it. If it did, we just have to find the right
scenario where it worked. Well.You can eat see Taylor and Experiences Comedy
Live on June seventh in Denver,June eighth in the in the Springs,
not just Colorado. Just I actuallyput the video today on my blog of

(14:22):
Colorado Transplant School, and it isso it's like it's like, I don't
want to say it's like the MonaLisa, but it's so perfect in its
way that it might be the MonaLisa of comedy transplants. How do you
say the name of our state?Well, now I say at Colorado,
But when I first got here,I said Colorado. But then when I

(14:43):
run the radio fifteen hours a week, well at the time it was twenty
hours a week, you get correctedenough, like snotty horrible emails about how
horrible your pronunciation is. It's just, hey, you're saying it wrong.
But I just moved from Louisville,Kentucky, where no matter how you say
lou someone's gonna tell you say itwrong. Right, it's Louisville, louis

(15:03):
I mean, they never say Louisville. But so I'm used to being corrected.
I just rolled with it. Sothen, how do you say the
full name of the springs Colorado Springsexactly? Yeah, you Golrado when we
say Colorado Springs, but then wesay Colorado. Yeah, when you're just

(15:24):
talking about the state. Yep,don't expert logic. I don't think I've
never heard anyone ever say Colorado Springs. No. No, well no,
there's there's like four guys who areeighth generation Colorado's who are yelling at the
radio right now because they live inColorado Springs. I would say that's just
the way it is. I mean, yeah, but there's more and more
than they're yelling at the radio.Saying no, it's rot and the whole

(15:46):
few. I mean, it's avery funny video. I want my listeners
to go watch it because I wantthe web traffic. I'm not gonna lie.
But you can also go and seehim live. You know when you
told your wife, because you weremarried and had a child when you started
this thing. So when you toldyour wife, hey, wife, I'm
gonna quit whatever normal job I haveand just pursue this full time, well

(16:07):
we have a small child. Whatdid that conversation go? How did that
go exactly? I'm just curious aboutthat. Well, first off, I
didn't just up and quit my job. I kept my job. I kept
my series of jobs I always had, like in order to like be creative
and like in order to pursue mycreative endeavors, I always had just a

(16:27):
lot of side jobs, right sidehustles that I used to be money.
But so I was just doing onthis on the side for the first several
years. And it was about butone year into it actually is when this
sort of conversation happened, and itwas, you know, we had a
we had a one year old.We had just moved because I lost my

(16:51):
job as an apartment manager because themanager that owned the building he passed away
and his wife sold it and thenew company came in, had their all
their own people, and they justpushed us out there, like you don't
have a job anymore, you needto move. So like I started working
seconstruction to make money. Anyway,long story short, it was like I

(17:11):
was overwhelmed. I had too muchgoing on. I couldn't handle it all.
And I finally broke down to mywife and said, I have to
quit. I have to quit something. I have to cut something out of
my schedule. I've got too muchgoing on. And before I could even
say it, she looked at meand she said, you can't quit do
dead. Oh, your wife isa genius she I mean she is,

(17:33):
but like I think it's the thenuts and bolts of it. She just
knew how much it fulfilled me,and knew the impact he was having on
other people. And money doesn't reallymatter to her, you know, never
really has. So she was justlike, yeah, go for it.

(17:55):
This is why wouldn't you you know? And and the other thing I got
to mention too about my wife isshe is going to be at all the
standard shows and She's a part ofit in some way that I can't tell
you, oh top secret. Everyoneloves her more than they love rate me.
I don't want to make sure thatI tell people that because it's always
a comment is like, is HIIgoing to be there? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah. One more comment here,Taylor before I let you go.

(18:19):
This one just says, well,wait a minute, my text just updated
here. Mandy Taylor is an awesomeguest. Yes, I said, too
many transplants, but there are afew gems like you and Do Dad.
So I think we've been given somekind of native dispensation, a dispensation there
where we're somehow you know we're in, Taylor, We're in. That's what's

(18:41):
happening. It's not a gift nativein the mouth. We'll just move.
I got to come more often.Your listeners are awesome. They are awesome.
And if you're when you're down inDenver, come stop my although not
next week because I'm gonna be inNorway, so don't stop by next week.
But i'd love to have you.I'd love to have you on anytime,
Taylor. I love what you're doingwith Do Dad. It's just it
brings a spot of joy in aworld where there is so little. So

(19:03):
thank you for doing what you're doingand keep doing it. Thank you very
much. All right. That isTaylor Caalmus. You know him, as
do dad. Taylor. Well,hopefully we will talk again soon. I
appreciate it, Mandy. All right, thank you, and you can go
buy the tickets to see his showat the blog. He has some really funny merch